Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 17D
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: R-ish
Summary: This story follows Ayumu, a more or less normal child born in 2012, three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here). His parents, Jun and Ohno, are everything but ( Read more... )
We are told, Page twenty-nine contains Jun’s signature, Ohno’s signature, Iago’s signature, and a public notary seal.
Page 29 where the contract was signed with the stamps and seals. I find that amusing. In 29BC, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, better known as Octavius was elected Roman consul for the 5th time. In case you don’t know who this guy is. This is the same Octavius
in Antony and Cleopatra who played everyone in the senate against everyone else, got Antony killed, manipulated Cleopatra to suicide and declared became dictator of Rome. That same year (29BC), Octavius declared that all the temples of Janus were to be closed ‘ostensibly’ to mark peace.
Janus is a two faced God of gateways, doors, entrances and exits, beginnings and ends. You must look forward and backwards in order for the middle to clear. The fact that Octavius or Kitagawa in this case closed ‘the temple of Janus’ should indicate to readers that he’s trying to prevent the Arashi men from looking forward or even going forward. Not satisfied with that, like Octavius, Iago even demands that Jun+Ohno truncate all their links to the past by burning bridges so that they can’t even look back or revisit the past for succour.
This is why Jun’s reflection process has been a hell of a process, and this is also why Ohno doesn’t even seem to think on the past.
More importantly, 29 in numerology becomes 11 because 2+9. Anything that happens at the 11 is not a coincidence. It is only on p.29 that Iago appears. Everything else in the contract avoids any explicit mention of Iago. That is Iago’s MO. He hides behind misdirection, smoke and mirrors and shadows. The only time he shows himself is at the end, and even then, he makes it as though he’s just putting endorsing something or refusing to endorse something.
The only way around (and not through) Iago is in the lettuce found in CH 17A - to be colder, shrewder and more cunning than Iago.
Page 30
Page 30 is blank except for the words ‘this page is intentionally left blank’. This reminds me of the line Viola utters in Twelfth Night about her history being a blank. This is exactly the same case with the Arashi men
As I have mentioned previously, 30 is a sphenic number. A Sphenic number is a positive integer that is the product of three different prime numbers. 30 is the smallest possible Sphenic number. Sphen is the ancient Greek word for ‘wedge’. Those 30 pages are meant to drive a wedge between every person in Arashi. At the moment, those 30 pages are a wedge between Jun +Ohno and the other three members.
All Sphenic numbers have a Mobius function of -1. A Mobius function is like Mobius strip, it repeats numbers in a certain sequence. There are three types of Mobius functions defining integers, -1, 0 and 1. We need only concern ourselves with -1 here because this reminds us of the number 11. The mathematical definition of ‘one left over’ is minus one or -1.
Moreover the fact that page 30 is INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK is telling. To the members of Arashi, the reason why there is a wedge between them is a blank. The Arashi men don’t know why a wedge has been driven between them.
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(30) How will Jun get in touch with the rest of them? Newspaper advertisements? Hand delivered notes?
(31) Who is responsible for the prophecy?
(32) What will the rest of the Arashi men think of it?
(33) What will Miyazono and Sawaguchi uncover when they dig subtly into Iago’s affairs? What will Miyazono do when he sees for himself the state of Iago!Claudius!Kitagawa’s Denmark?
(34) What of Aiba? What’s his role when Sho casts him aside after the fig quarrel? Will information about Sho and Iris surface then?
(35) What is Nino’s current stance towards Jun now that he knows Jun didn’t screw him over?
(36) What is Nino’s current stance towards Satoshi now that he has some inkling that NaSA!Ohno was the bugger that sparked off the whole dissolution of Arashi problem as well as my truffle’s mental depression?
(37)What will start the balling to get Ohno off his Min-worshipping penis and Sho’s vexing infatuation for ‘lager’ and fridges? Arashi can’t move against Iago if 2 out of 5 of them haven’t brain cells to rub together.
I shall leave you with these parting questions. And thus ends Chapter 17’s commentary and analysis.
[Interestingly, I've noticed that 3 out of 5 readers think that NaSA!Ohno is sweet with his coral roses of 'passionate desire' and his trilogy ring. Clearly people who only see the faces and not the vases. 1 out of 5 readers suspect something is up with Ohno's sudden grand gesture but can't put their finger on it. This reader knows the two faces can't be it and tries to see vase but still can't. The remaining 1 out of 5 readers just practises 'keyboard smashing'. This remaining reader sees neither the vase nor the faces; he/she just sees swiggly lines and dismisses the lines as rubbish.
This demographics is interesting. I've taken myself out of course. I'm an outlier. heh.]
Thus concludes the commentary for CH 17. Other than Haineko, I hope that those of you who do read it (if any) will find things to mull over and spend more time thinking about the central themes and the symbolism inherent in the plot.
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